Birthday Honours
Readers of Mental Welfare will have already heard with gratification of the Knighthood recently conferred by H.M. The King on Sir Henry Bracken- bury and Sir Francis Fremantle.
As a Vice-President of the Association and frequently as the acting Chair- man of the Executive Council, Sir Henry Brackenbury has given his valuable services for many years. Sir Francis Fremantle also has given the Association his continued interest and support in connection with Parliamentary affairs.
Board of Control
The Board of Control, with the approval of the Minister of Health, have appointed a Committee with the following terms of reference: ? To examine and report on the information already available regarding the hereditary transmission and other causes of mental disorder and deficiency; to consider the value of sterilisation as a preventive measure, having regard to its physical, psychological, and social effects and to the experience of legislation in other countries permitting it; and to suggest what further inquiries might usefully be undertaken in this connection. The Committee is constituted as follows: ?
Chairman : L. G. Brock, Esq., C.B., Chairman of the Board of Control. Wilfred Trotter, Esq., F.R.S., M.D., M.S., F.R.C.S., Member of the Medical Research Council. R. A. Fisher, Esq., Sc.D., F.R.S., F.R.A.S. A. F. Tredgold, Esq., M.D., F.R.C.P., M.R.C.S., F.R.S.(Ed.). Miss Ruth Darwin, Commissioner of the Board of Control. E. W. Adams, Esq., O.B.E., M.D., Medical Officer, Ministry of Health. R. H. Crowley, Esq., M.D., F.R.C.P., Senior Medical Officer, Board of Education. E. O. Lewis, Esq., M.A., D.Sc., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., Commissioner of the Board of Control. Mr. F. Chanter, of the Board of Control, will be Secretary of the Com- mittee.
The King, on the recommendation of the Minister of Health, has ap- proved the appointment of Miss Ruth Darwin as a Senior Commissioner of the Board of Control, in succession to Mrs. Ellen F. Pinsent, C.B.E. Mrs. Pinsent, who will retire on 31st July, has had a long and dis- tinguished career of public service. She served for many years on the Birmingham Education Committee and on the City Council; and was a mem- ber of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded, 1904 to 1909. She was an Honorary Commissioner of the Board of Control from 1913 to 1920 and a Commissioner from 1921 to 1930; and has been a Senior Commissioner since 1st January, 1931, when the Board was recognised under the Mental Treatment Act, 1930. She represented the Board on the Joint Committee on Mental Deficiency, 1924 to 1929. She is an honorary M.A. of Birmingham University and was created C.B.E. in 1925.
Miss Darwin, who is a daughter of the late Sir Horace Darwin, was an Honorary Commissioner from 1920 to 1930 and has been a Commissioner since 1st January, 1931. She is a member of the Committee recently appointed to consider certain issues arising in connection with the sterilization of the mentally unfit.
The Board of Control, with the approval of the Minister of Health, have appointed Mr. J. H. Cobb, M.B., F.R.C.S., as honorary Consultant in con- nection with diseases of the ear, nose, and throat occurring amongst the men- tally defective patients at Rampton State Institution, Retford, Notts.
West End Hospital Clinic
At the beginning of the new school year a special unit is to be founded at the West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases, 73, Welbeck Street, W.i, for the treatment of certain types of children such as the ” nervous ” child, the educationally retarded and the child suffering from the after-effects of enceph- alitis lethargica. The unit will comprise four weekly clinics with a staff of qualified medical psychotherapists, lay psychologists and trained social workers. The special ward for children in the hospital in Regent’s Park will provide facilities for the admission of selected cases for observation.
The Child Guidance Council of Great Britain is to lend the services of a social worker for one year. This unit will be financed from the general funds of the Hospital which appeals to all who sympathise with this pioneer movement to give their support.
New Institution, Doncaster
St. Catherine’s Institution at Loversall, near Doncaster, which has been established by the South West Yorkshire Joint Board for the Mentally Defec- tive, was officially opened by the Minister of Health on June 10th, 1932. St. Catherine’s Hall and estate of about 200 acres was acquired by the Joint Board in 1929 as a nucleus for a colony for the mentally defective from the County Boroughs of Barnsley, Dewsbury, Doncaster, Halifax, Hudders- field, Rotherham and Wakefield. The scheme has been prepared for a colony for 640 patients and the first instalment just opened includes the erection of two pavilions for 120 female patients, workshop and laundries. The Hall is now housing boy patients. The second instalment which has received the approval of the Board of Control consists of two further pavilions for 120 male patients and further workshops, with one low-grade block for 40 patients. Thirty acres of park land has been reserved for the present scheme and the rest is let off to tenant farmers.
Shuttleworth Samaritan Fund
A Fund is being raised to form a memorial to the work of the late Dr G. E. Shuttleworth, whose life was devoted to the welfare of the mentally defective.
The memorial is to take the form of a Samaritan Fund which will be available to help better class people to place their children or relatives in appropriate homes for care and training. No other fund of the kind exists and those in touch with mental welfare work will immediately recognise the need there is for such assistance.
Subscriptions should be sent to the Treasurer, The Shuttleworth Mem- orial Fund, 72, Denison House, Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, S.W.i, or direct to the Shuttleworth Samaritan Fund, Martin’s Bank, 68, Lombard Street, E.C.3.
Vacation Course in Orthophonies
A Vacation Course in the Treatment of Defective Speech will be held at University College, Gower Street, London, from 26th July to 9th August, 1932. The lectures will be given by Miss Eileen MacLeod, Officer in Charge at the Orthophonic Department, King’s College Hospital.
The Course will occupy from 2.30 to 4.30 p.m. each weekday, except Monday, 1st August (Bank Holiday) and will include a Preliminary Course from July 26th to August 2nd, and Advanced Course, August 3rd to 9th. The Advanced Course consists of six seminars on modern methods of treating major speech defects and disorders and the organisation of corrective work in schools. The fee for the full Course is ^5 os. od., and the Preliminary Course only, ^3 os. od. Full particulars may be obtained from the Secretary, University College, Gower Street, London, W.C.i.
Glasgow Mental Hospital
Dr Angus McNiven has been appointed as Physician-Superintendent of the Glasgow Mental Hospital in succession to Dr D. K. Henderson, who is now Physician-Superintendent of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital for Mental Disorders and holds the chair of Psychiatry in the University of Edinburgh.
International Mental Hygiene Conference
Representatives of the European Committee for Mental Hygiene met in Paris at the end of May to initiate preparations for a second International Mental Hygiene Conference to be held in Paris in 1935. A second European union is to be held in Rome in September, 1933, by invitation of the Italian representatives. Sir Hubert Bond was appointed British representative on the European executive and Dr Gillespie the British corresponding member of the European Council. Professor Toulouse was elected president of the I935 Congress and Dr Genii Perrin as hon. secretary.
British Medical Association Report on Mental Deficiency A Committee was appointed in November, 1930, by the British Medical Association “To report on the various medical problems presented by mental deficiency, more especially with regard to methods which have been suggested to reduce its incidence and the facilities for medical education in this subject.” This Committee, which met 12 times, reported at the end of June. After the Annual Representative Meeting of the B.M.A., the report will be available at a nominal charge.
The Report will be reviewed in full in the next issue of Mental Welfare.
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